Dr. LaRosa is currently Associate Chairman for Education of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Lipid Research Clinic at The George Washington University Medical Center. For 1982 through 1985, he is the chairman of the Educational Planning Committee (the curriculum committee) and is in a strong and unique position to influence curricular change. That committee, moreover, has recently been charged to develop a curriculum in preventive medicine. The curriculum in preventive cardiology proposed here aims to 1) identify and strengthen current curricular offerings in preventive cardiology and 2) introduce new programs including: a) a series of class sessions based on health risk data obtained from students and their parents. These sessions will run through all four undergraduate years and emphasize the relationships between epidemiologically-derived data, clinical practice, and personal health habits and attitudes, b) a risk factor reduction clinic experience for all junior students and fellows, supplemented with didactic sessions on relevant preventive cardiology topics, c) didactic two-week courses for senior students, d) assessments of the effect of the program on knowledge and attitudes of students and e) assessment of the effectiveness of the program in reducing cardiovascular risk factors in the patient populations seen in the clinics established by the program. The commitment of the Dean's Office and relevant faculty to the development of preventive medicine in the curriculum, Dr. LaRosa's strong commitment to both research and education and his current position as Chairman of the curriculum committee combine to make this program both desirable to the medical center and accomplishable.
